About Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935

Passenger lists of ships arriving in various Canadian ports as well as some eastern U.S. ports from 1865–1935 are indexed this database. This collection, covering 2.2 million people who arrived in these ports, has never been indexed before.

All passengers' names are included in these lists regardless of country of origin or nationality including returning Canadian citizens, immigrants, individuals in transit to the U.S., and visitors to Canada. Passenger lists comprised the official immigration records of Canada between the years covered by this collection, although the forms used and information recorded varied. Lists from later years usually contain more details depending on the form.

Information recorded may include:

Name of passenger

Age

Gender

Marital status

Whether ever been in Canada before; if so, when, where, and how long

Whether intend to permanently reside in Canada

Whether able to read and write

Birth country

Race of people

Destination

Occupation

Religious denomination

Port of arrival

Date of arrival

Port of embarkation

Ship name

Shipping line

Special Notes:

Passengers from mainland Europe usually sailed to Great Britain, where they boarded trans-Atlantic ships at ports such as Liverpool, London, and Glasgow, and some Canadian immigrants arrived at American ports. Ships arriving on the West Coast carried passengers from Asia, Australia and Honolulu. Any immigrant destined for western Canada having landed in the U.S. could continue their journey by train from their port of arrival; however, none of the names of train passengers were recorded.

Lists for the port of Quebec include passengers who disembarked at Montreal between 1865 and 1921 because those ports were closed during the winter months when the St. Lawrence River was frozen.

Related Records:

From 1919–1924 individual manifest forms (Form 30A) were often used instead of passenger lists as the official immigration record. The use of Form 30A, also known as “Ocean Arrivals”, accounts for most of the gaps in years covered in this database. Ancestry will be adding the “Ocean Arrivals” records in the coming months. If you do not find an individual in this database, you may want to try searching the “Ocean Arrivals” records.

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Related data collections

This data collection contains individual declarations of passengers arriving at various Canadian ports between 1919 and 1924. The declarations were a standard pre-printed form called Form 30A. This form was in officially in use between June 1, 1921 and December 31, 1924 and was regulated by the Department of Immigration and Colonization. A form was to be completed for each passenger, including children. Exceptions were for passengers in transit to the U.S. The forms were then submitted to immigration officers upon arrival at the port of destination.

This database contains records of immigrants crossing into Canada from the United States between 1908 and 1935. These records consist of border entry lists and Form 30 (individual entry forms). Information recorded in these records may include: name of immigrant, port of arrival, date of arrival, age, gender, country of citizenship, birthplace, marital status, and last permanent address.

This database contains an index of aliens and citizens crossing into the U.S. from Canada via various ports of entry along the U.S.-Canadian border between 1895 and 1960. The records contain information on name, age, birth date, birthplace, gender, ethnicity/nationality, names of individuals accompanied by, name of nearest relative or friend in former country, and name of nearest relative or friend at destination.All Immigration & Travel in the Card Catalogue